January 26, 2011 Today's Stories -- Mayors' Record With Obama On Guns: 0 for 40 -- After FL Police Killings, Some Seek To Loosen Gun Laws -- NYPD Impact On Reducing Robberies Confirmed: Zimring -- Predictive Policing: Some Crime Random, A Lot Isn't -- Justice Department Will Review Attacks On Police Officers -- Memphis Police Leader Godwin May Retire In April -- Shortage Prompts Ohio To Change Lethal Injection Drug -- Obama Backs Mobile Broadband For Public Safety -- MA Gov Seeks To Combine Probation, Parole, Cut Budget -- Citing Parole Board Vindictiveness, Court Orders PA Release -- Is NRA Squelching Legitimate Research On Guns? -- Fight Looms As NRA Opposes Obama's ATF Nominee You may go to TheCrimeReport.org to search all archived CJN stories. Please e-mail Ted Gest at CJJ with concerns about the editorial content of our news items, to suggest news stories, or with general comments. |
Mayors' Record With Obama On Guns: 0 for 40 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After nearly five years of work, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 550-member coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns has failed to force major strengthening of federal gun control laws, says the New York Times. "You've got an alternative voice to the dominant N.R.A. voice, and that adds to the dialogue," said Douglas Muzzio of the Baruch College School of Public Affairs. "The question then becomes: Does the dialogue lead to effective action? And that's more of an unknown. I have not seen a direct connection between what they're standing for and any substantive policy change." In 2009, the coalition group gave the Obama administration 40 ways it could strengthen federal gun rules without congressional action, from increasing enforcement of existing laws to tightening background checks. Only one proposal has been taken up by the White House, a rule, not yet in force, requiring dealers to report to federal officials when they make a sale involving multiple rifles or other long guns. Opponents of gun control have largely succeeded in blocking Congress from restricting the availability of guns, even after high-profile mass killings, from Columbine to Virginia Tech to Tucson. |
After FL Police Killings, Some Seek To Loosen Gun Laws ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johnny Simms wasn't supposed to have a gun. Neither was Hydra Lacy. Both men were felons, says the Miami Herald. Each man murdered two police officers in separate cities, Miami and St. Petersburg. The explosion of gun violence hasn't gone unnoticed in the state Capitol, where members of the pro-gun Florida legislature say the tragedies underscore the need to loosen the regulation of guns -- rather than restrict them. "What these cases show is that gun regulation doesn't keep guns away from criminals,'' Sen. Greg Evers said. "It's time we get more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens so they can protect themselves. You don't bring a knife to a gun fight.'' Evers is sponsoring two controversial gun bills this legislative session. One would restrict physicians from asking patients about the presence of firearms in the home. The other would allow holders of concealed weapon permits to wear their guns in the open -- including on college campuses. About 780,000 Floridians have such permits. A third bill would ensure that local governments in Florida can't pass gun-control laws. All three are being pushed by the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbies in the state capital. |
NYPD Impact On Reducing Robberies Confirmed: Zimring ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Over the past two decades, New York City's crime rate reduction is twice the national average and has lasted twice as long, University of California Berkeley law Prof. Franklin Zimring tells the Wall Street Journal. Zimring did research focused on homicide, robbery, and auto theft as reported by police from 1990 to 2009. He compared these numbers to independent sources to verify or discount the sizable decline in each crime. The professor says he confirmed the accuracy in the drop in robberies reported by police. Zimring, who is writing a book called "The City That Became Safe: New York and the Future of Crime Control," says changes in policing policies "are the only obvious candidates to take credit" for what he called the city's "Guinness Book of World Records' crime drop." The impact police had on homicide and rape were less pronounced, and the cops had a very limited role in lowering grand larcenies and assaults, he says. Meanwhile, critics of New York police crime statistics want to revive the sort of audit done in 1997 by former state Comptroller Carl McCall. Those pushing for review cite allegations from police officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who went public last year with secretly taped recording that showed that some police supervisors in his Bedford-Stuyvesant precinct may have been downgrading crime complaints or refusing to take them at all. |
Predictive Policing: Some Crime Random, A Lot Isn't ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several police deprtments are experimenting with the "predictive policing" concept, says Slate.com. They include Los Angeles, which has won a $3 million federal grant pending congressional approval of the federal budget, Santa Cruz, Ca., which recruited a Santa Clara University professor to help rejigger patrol patterns, and Chicago, which has a new criminal forecasting unit to predict crime before it happens. "This is not about predicting the behavior of a specific individual," says Jeffrey Brantingham, a UCLA anthropology professor on the team partnering with Los Angeles police. Rather, predictive policing deals with crime in the aggregate. "It's about predicting the risk of certain types of crimes in time and space," he says. Predictive policing is based on the idea that some crime is random-but a lot isn't. That doesn't mean police can prevent all crime-only the more predictable kinds, like burglary or auto theft. Isn't a lot of this intuitive? If a crime occurs on a particular block, can't officers just keep a closer eye on that area? Sure, says Brantingham, but intuition can take police only so far. In a city as large and complex as Los Angeles, it's hard to perform predictive policing by gut alone |
Justice Department Will Review Attacks On Police Officers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Justice Department will review a rash of deadly attacks on police after the fatal shootings of 10 officers since Jan. 1, says USA Today. Bernard Melekian, the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services director, said analysts would study whether deficits in training, resources, or officer behavior may have contributed to a troubling series of violent attacks in at least five states. The 10 firearm-related police deaths mark the third-highest January total in the past 20 years. "Coming off 2010, my gracious, it's a really bad way to start a new year," said Mark Marshall, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Marshall, the police chief in Smithfield, Va., said the association is just beginning to assemble a national database, tracking assaults on police that result in serious injury and death. The database, part of the Center for the Prevention of Violence Against the Police, will be used to help determine whether new training or resources are needed to better deal with violent confrontations. Police leaders, including former Miami police chief John Timoney, have identified several factors contributing to the violence. Among them: More desperate offenders willing to target police; officers' inconsistent use of body armor. Some, including the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, have suggested that up to half of all police do not wear armor regularly, and offenders' access to high-caliber weapons. |
Memphis Police Leader Godwin May Retire In April ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Memphis may be seeking a new police director to replace Larry Godwin, who is scheduled to retire in April, says the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Godwin, 59, likely will end a Memphis law enforcement career that spans nearly four decades. He will get an annual pension of about $93,510. Memphis Chief Administrative Officer George Little said the city is laying the groundwork for the transition, although it is possible that Godwin could be rehired after his formal retirement. The police are the city's largest division in budget and number of employees. Godwin has had acclaim for using technology to fight crime. He started the department's Operation Blue CRUSH (Crime Reduction Using Statistical History) initiative, a data-driven police deployment strategy that places officers in areas where statistics say crime is most likely to happen. Godwin was also the driving force behind the creation of the Real Time Crime Center, a centralized technology hub that provides officers in the field with instant and comprehensive crime information. |
Shortage Prompts Ohio To Change Lethal Injection Drug ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ohio is switching its lethal injection drug to an anesthetic commonly used to put pets to sleep as a shortage of the drug normally used for executions has worsened, reports the Associated Press. The state will use a single, powerful dose of pentobarbital, a common anesthetic used in surgeries and also by veterinarians to euthanize pets. The drug replaces sodium thiopental, which was already in short supply when its only U.S. manufacturer said last week it would no longer produce it. Ohio will use its remaining supply of sodium thiopental for the Feb. 17 execution of Frank Spisak, who killed three people at Cleveland State University in 1982. The first use of pentobarbital is planned for March's scheduled execution of Johnnie Baston. |
Obama Backs Mobile Broadband For Public Safety ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama portrayed the wireless industry as a great hope for job creation and improved public services, reports The Hill newspaper on Capitol Hill. He wants to cover 98 percent of Americans with 4G mobile broadband connections over the next five years, an ambitious goal considering these networks are all but nascent today. The debate over the D Block of spectrum appeared to get a brief allusion in the president's speech. He gave a nod to calls for public safety officials to gain access to mobile broadband. "It's about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device," he said. |
MA Gov Seeks To Combine Probation, Parole, Cut Budget ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, unable to resolve a power struggle with House and Senate leaders, is pressing ahead with a plan to merge the troubled state Probation Department and the embattled Parole Board, put them under his control, and slash their budgets, reports the Boston Globe. Patrick was acting on his long-stated goal of combining the agencies and seizing control, which he said would lead to better monitoring of prisoners before and after their release. The proposal, which would create a new Department of Reentry and Community Supervision, set the stage for a political battle with legislative leaders and the state's top judges, who have resisted the governor's call to transfer the Probation Department from the judiciary to the executive branch. Patrick already controls the Parole Board. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, not only would the probation and parole systems be combined, their budgets would be cut 9 percent, or $14 million, in the next fiscal year. Patrick aides said the spending reduction, which will be included in the governor's full budget proposal today, more accurately reflected demands on the two agencies. An independent investigator said last year that the Probation Department had been receiving unjustified increases to its budget as a reward for hiring friends and associates of lawmakers. |
Citing Parole Board Vindictiveness, Court Orders PA Release ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An 82-year-old Pennsylvania prisoner was released after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the state parole board showed "retaliation or vindictiveness" for refusing to release him when he committed a parole violation after the governor commuted his sentence, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Former Gov. Robert Casey (now a U.S. senator) commuted the life sentence of Louis Mickens-Thomas in 1995. He ended up spending more than 45 years inside Graterford Prison. Mickens-Thomas was convicted of the 1964 murder of a girl, 12, largely on the testimony of a crime-lab worker who later was accused of having a long history of perjury and of faking her scientific credentials. He has always maintained his innocence, and for the last 20 years, Centurion Ministries has worked to free him. "He's completely innocent," said Centurion's Jim McCloskey. "He had nothing to do with that crime." His parole violation involved a discharge from a sex-offender treatment program for making an intimidating remark to a therapist after admitting he kissed a woman at church who did not want him to. |
Is NRA Squelching Legitimate Research On Guns? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the Tucson shootings, says the New York Times, questions resurfaced such as are communities where more people carry guns safer or less safe? Does the availability of high-capacity magazines increase deaths? Do more rigorous background checks make a difference? These and other basic questions cannot be fully answered, because not enough research has been done. Scientists in the field and former officials with the government agency that used to finance this research say the influence of the National Rife Association has all but choked off money for such work. "We've been stopped from answering the basic questions," said Mark Rosenberg, ex-chief of the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was for about a decade the leading source of financing for firearms research. NRA lobbyist Chris Cox said his group had not tried to squelch genuine scientific inquiries, just politically slanted ones. "Our concern is not with legitimate medical science," Cox said. "Our concern is they were promoting the idea that gun ownership was a disease that needed to be eradicated." The amount of money available for studying the impact of firearms is a small fraction of what it was in the mid-1990s, and the number of scientists toiling in the field has dwindled to just a handful as a result, researchers say. |
Fight Looms As NRA Opposes Obama's ATF Nominee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Three days before the Tucson mass shooting restarted a debate on gunc ontrol, the White House renominated Andrew Traver, whose whose actions have riled the gun rights movement to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Traver, leads the agency's Chicago office, where he has been called an anti-gun zealot by some gun rights advocates who oppose his nomination, reports USA Today. "Traver has been deeply aligned with gun-control advocates and anti-gun activities," says the National Rifle Association. "This makes him the wrong choice to lead an enforcement agency that has almost exclusive oversight and control over the firearms industry, its retailers and consumers." Traver's nomination all but ensures the firearms debate will go on after the spotlight fades in Tucson. "I see (Traver's nomination) as a very big opportunity for the administration," said Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Since this administration took office, they have run from the gun issue. [] They need to fight for this." The bureau has been without a permanent director for five years. Its staffing - at 2,500 agents - has remained unchanged as other federal law enforcement agencies have grown dramatically. |
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